Many types of massage apparatus are known which comprise a treatment accessory (thigh boots, abdominal belts, etc.) adapted to be arranged in contact with a part of the body of a patient in order to achieve thereon a succession of local pressures progressing in the direction of lymphatic drainage to be effectuated. These accessories are generally comprised of a plurality of inflatable, juxtaposed cells which are successively inflated and then deflated according to a defined cycle. The following patents disclose such apparatus: French patents 2,511,241 and 2,405,708; U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,135 and 3,167,067; British patents 2,062,235, 483,111 and 2,077,108; and German patent 2,753,523. In these devices, the massaging accessory encircles the body member to be treated and the inflatable cells are connected by a network of conduits to an air distribution apparatus comprising in particular a rotating air distributor, or an air distributor having slide valves or a plurality of solenoid valves, such an installation being able to deliver successively the pneumatic pressure to each cell through the conduit with which it is connected. However, these systems are complex and cumbersome, and are only of little practical use, primarily because of the presence of the numerous pneumatic conduits necessary (one per inflatable cell), and the complexity of the distribution installation intended to assure the desired sequence of inflation.
Further, other bandage systems are known which are adapted to apply high, stable pressures to a body member in order to definitively expel the blood before a surgical procedure (U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,684; International application WO 85/01868). However, these devices are in general only able to function at relatively high pressures and are unable to operate at commonly used massaging pressures. Moreover, these devices do not work in a cyclic manner and are themselves relatively complex structures (in particular with respect to their distributors which comprise various related components such as: springs, pistons, piston rods, ball bearings, etc.) As a result, these systems do not provide a solution to the problem of cyclic massage or the simplification of known massaging devices.
The present invention proposes a considerable simplification of massaging devices of the type previously described and provides a massaging device having a reduced number of conduits and much simpler distribution means, while still being able to work in a cyclic fashion at low pressures required by the massaging action (on the order of 50 to 100 millibars).
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus enabling, in a very flexible manner, a control of the massage characteristics (value of the pressures, speed of drainage, amplitude of the pressure wave . . . ).